Selenophile // Marauders

|6| Summer and Train, Second Year

June 27th, 1972

"Finally! I missed home!" Riley said as she dropped her trunk on the doorstep. "People in my dorm question everything I do and I'm tired of it."

"But you have friends, right Rey?" Ivy asked laughingly.

"I think, am I really that cold?" she asked as she looked down.

"What? No, who told you that?" Ivy asked.

"No one, I get annoyed so easily, that even annoys me, I tend to just sit in one corner and read for the rest of the night when I have to study, but I still do good in exams which I won't complain about," Riley said.

"Think of it this way, you're way smarter than most of the school, right? You told me about that Snape kid you called Snivellus, you beat him in Potions because you got annoyed at him and you're Slughorn's favorite now. Maybe being annoyed isn't that bad, is it?" Ivy said as the optimistic person she was. Riley walked upstairs to go to her messy room which she noticed that her mum cleaned up a bit. She rolled her eyes and flung her bags on the floor as if they were redundant. "How are things at the hospital?"

"Uh, it's exhausting. I've worked there for about a year now and it's hectic. People used to come in with injuries because of simple things, not dark curses and jinxes performed on them. They've been murdering muggle families Rey, it's terrible out there, at least you're in Hogwarts, that's safer," Ivy said with horror in her eyes. Riley was scared for her friends and even her family. She learned well that death eaters did not like muggles or muggle-borns and her family had both...

***

September 1st, 1972

Riley got on the train to go back to school for her second year. Her friends also came into the compartment and they were telling what they did in summer. Well, James was telling them what he did in the summer. Sirius talked about his mum, Remus didn't say much which Riley knew why, and Peter kept eating sweets.

The compartment door opened and a red-haired girl stood at the entrance.

"Hi, I'm Lily, and this is Severus. Can we sit with you? Everywhere else is full," Evans asked. Riley and Remus nodded while James was unsure of letting Snape in the compartment. Riley didn't mind showing her grades off to Snivellus.

"I don't want to sit with these people Lily, let's go, they don't like me neither..." he said behind Lily.

"Why Sev, is it just because Spade beat you in Potions? That's childish," Lily said. Riley couldn't help but laugh a bit. She also noticed that her friend James couldn't take his eyes off of Lily which she made a mental note about so that she could tease him later.

"We didn't want to sit with Snivelly either. What a coincidence," Sirius said mockingly. Snape looked at them with disgust right before leaving them behind. Lily didn't go after him, instead, she sat with them.

"He can be a bit unfriendly, sorry," Lily said.

"Why are you friends with him, Evans?" James asked. "He's mean, he's a Slytherin—"

"If this is about him being in a different house then I'm leaving," Lily said sternly and clearly.

"No, it's not about that. It's about him being annoying and unfriendly like you said."

"We are childhood friends, we grew up in the same town, would you stop being friends with Pettigrew because you're in school?" Lily asked. Peter looked up at the mention of his name.

"It's not the same thing Evans. Pete is a good person, Snivellus isn't."

"Cheers," said Peter.

"Stop calling him that if you don't want him to bully you! You still can't get why he bullies you when you insult him on a daily basis!" Lily stated. James rolled her eyes and Riley was watching the fight grow.

"Doesn't he insult everyone, Evans? I've heard him use — well, you know, insults, towards muggle-borns!" James didn't use the word mudblood, he knew better than that.

"He kind of has a point there, Evans, remember how you stopped him from insulting me in Potions?" Riley added. Lily just looked around for a while and stared at James angrily. Then, she stood up and opened the compartment door to find her 'friend.'

"Someone's got a crush on Evans..." Riley teased James.

"I'm not denying anything," James said proudly.

"Why exactly do you like her this much?" Sirius asked. "She's friends with the enemy."

"So? She'll understand Snivellus is a bad person sometimes..." James said. "So how was your summer?"

"Good, I guess..." Remus said. Riley eyed him with sad eyes.

"Mine was great! I visited James over the summer," Peter said excitedly.

"My parents were — the same. So not the best summer in general," Sirius said.

"Have you heard of death eater attacks? My sister works at St. Mungo's, she says that things are getting dangerous," Riley said worriedly.

"Yeah, my dad was telling me the same thing," James said. "People are murdered every day."

"Really?" Peter asked. "I haven't heard of them."

"Because you're usually not aware of anything Pete, no offense," James said. "Anyways, I will try out for chaser this year, it will be great. Hogwarts will see its best chaser in years!"

"I won't bother with any of that nonsense. I hate flying," Remus said.

"Me neither. I don't like sports," Peter said.

"I don't know yet. Maybe my mum will go insane if I play for the Gryffindor team so maybe I will," Sirius said smiling. "I know my perfect brother would try out for the seeker. He's a first-year now."

"I will probably try out for beater. I don't like team sports, so not for chaser, all the glory of the seeker, no thank you. So that leaves beater and keeper which beater is way better. You can hit people with bludgers..." Riley said.

"Maybe we will all get in the team, that would be awesome, wouldn't it?" James said. Riley could see quidditch was his passion.

Riley took some papers out of her bag, which was also a mess. Some crumpled parchment, snacks, water, muggle clothes, robes, books, and so much more. The four boys watched her take out the paper but they couldn't really understand what it was.

"What is that?" Remus asked.

"Music notes," Riley answered shortly.

"For...?" Sirius said.

"I've been practicing a spell, to make them play out loud. Well, of course, I couldn't do that in the summer because we aren't allowed to use magic outside of school but I learned it in June, right before schools closed. I'm just gonna see if I can still do it." Riley said.

"You like music?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, I love music. I play the ukulele, my sister taught me how to," Riley explained.

"That's cool! What's it though?" Peter asked.

"It's like a small guitar, the chords are different, they're not the same, I don't know if wizards play it." Riley flicked her wand and mumbled a quiet spell. The paper started to glow and the music notes started to move as it was their turn to be played. It was like there was a piano there, the tune filled the small compartment and Riley smiled as it did.

"Looks like I still can."